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What if America’s unbanked had mobile wallets?
Delivering financial services to the world's unbanked masses is not a topic that usually includes a developed economy like the United States. That's because Africa is the global leader in this area. Its mobile network operators are boosting their bottom lines and raising standards of living by offering mobile wallets to the unbanked -- making it possible to conduct a variety of transactions from person-to-person money transfers to bill payments and point-of-sale purchases.
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Weekly Roundup – 3/1/14: A digital heist, mobile money power-plays and controversy in Africa cap a turbulent week in finance
This week, a major Bitcoin exchange filed for bankruptcy, after almost half a billion dollars of the virtual currency went missing. Safaricom continued taking M-Pesa global, while new competition emerged on its home front. And the World Bank postponed a $90 million loan to Uganda in response to a controversial new law. We explore these issues in the Roundup.
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Beyond Opinion: Understanding Consumer Demand in Developing Countries: A March 7 USAID forum will showcase new techniques
Why do pro-poor technologies fail to achieve scale — even when they offer proven benefits?
Part of the problem is that we aren’t getting reliable information about what poor people actually want. And as a result, we make lots of assumptions. On March 7, USAID’s Office of Science and Technology will be showcasing some very innovative techniques for measuring consumer demand in low-income communities.- Categories
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- product design
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Quick Wins in Mobile Money: How simple usability tweaks can significantly increase mobile money usage
Mobile finance has great potential to serve the poor, but many existing services are not designed around their needs, behaviors and capabilities. New research from Grameen Foundation reveals simple usability fixes that mobile money providers could incorporate to help their products better meet the needs of the BoP, and reach scale and commercial viability.
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Is Social Enterprise the “Child Star” of the Sector?
Writing for the Poverty Matters blog at the Guardian, Deborah Doane, the former director of the World Development Movement, calls social entrepreneurs in India “the child star in an otherwise much-maligned space.”
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U.S. Senator calls for a Bitcoin ban as regulators seek ‘accelerated push’
The implosion of a once-popular Bitcoin exchange has some lawmakers calling for a ban on the virtual currency.
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Central Bank of Nigeria to extend cashless policy nationwide
The Central Bank of Nigeria Acting Governor, Dr. Sarah Alade, Wednesday said the bankers’ committee will not rescind on the plan to extend the cashless policy to other states in the country from July 1.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Banks lose out as M-Pesa goes global with MoneyGram deal
Safaricom’s push to take its mobile money transfer business global has received another boost with the signing of a deal that will see users of MoneyGram send cash directly to M-Pesa customers from any part of the world.
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